`Neighbor from hell' gets probation in harassment case

A woman dubbed the “neighbor from hell” was sentenced to five years’ probation Monday for harassing a White Bear Lake family and violating the restraining order they had against her.

Lori Elaine Christensen, 50, must also complete 50 hours of community service and cannot go within a mile of the home of Gregory and Kimberly Hoffman, who alleged that she harassed them in multiple incidents last year.

Christensen pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of harassment but later asked Ramsey County District Judge Judith Tilsen to withdraw her plea. Gary Wolf, Christensen’s attorney, wrote in a motion filed with the court that she believed she had been forced to plead guilty and that the court might have alluded to a two-year prison sentence if she had been convicted.

Tilsen rejected Christensen’s request. The judge also rejected Wolf’s argument that it was illegal to make Christensen wait until her probation period from a similar case involving the Hoffmans had ended before starting her next one.

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With the remaining time on the previous sentence, Christensen will spend the next eight years and two months on probation.

“I have no intention of hearing, seeing or even visualizing the Hoffmans,” Christensen told the judge.

The current case involved several incidents, according to a criminal complaint filed in May 2012. Christensen allegedly taunted the family about Kimberly Hoffman’s struggle with alcohol. At one point she put a vodka bottle in the Hoffmans’ mailbox, the complaint said.

Wolf said he will appeal both Tilsen’s rejection of the plea withdrawal and her ruling to allow consecutive sentences.